Implications For Community Psychology Research Articles

"They Dumped Me Like Trash": The Social and Psychological Toll of Victimization on Latino Day Laborers' Lives.

Although recent rhetoric links undocumented immigrants to criminality, reports indicate undocumented immigrants commit less crime than their native-born counterparts and that this vulnerable group may be at increased risk for criminal victimization. Immigrants living in new immigrant settlement cities may be particularly at risk for exposure to criminal victimization due to the vulnerabilities associated with a lack of an established Latino community and limited availability of culturally appropriate social services to provide support. This ethnographic study examines the experiences of victimization and its social and psychological toll of a street-recruited sample of Latino day laborers (LDLs) (N=25) living and working in Baltimore, a new immigrant settlement city. Findings elucidate and describe the specific types of victimization experienced by LDLs, including workplace victimization (wage theft, abandonment at the jobsite, poor working conditions, verbal abuse) and street-level victimization (assault and robbery), as well as reveal the social and psychological toll of victimization (sociocultural alienation, despair or desesperación, and problem drinking) on their lives. Findings have implications for community psychology, through research and practice, as they provide insights for prevention and intervention within the intersection of structural vulnerability (i.e., undocumented immigration status), violence, and mental health.

Understanding Systems Change in Early Implementation of Housing First in Canadian Communities: An Examination of Facilitators/Barriers, Training/Technical Assistance, and Points of Leverage.

We present interim findings of a cross-site case study of an initiative to expand Housing First (HF) in Canada through training and technical assistance (TTA). HF is an evidence-based practice designed to end chronic homelessness for consumers of mental health services. We draw upon concepts from implementation science and systems change theory to examine how early implementation occurs within a system. Case studies examining HF early implementation were conducted in six Canadian communities receiving HF TTA. The primary data are field notes gathered over 1.5years and evaluations from site-specific training events (k=5, n=302) and regional network training events (k=4, n=276). We report findings related to: (a) the facilitators of and barriers to early implementation, (b) the influence of TTA on early implementation, and (c) the "levers" used to facilitate broader systems change. Systems change theory enabled us to understand how various "levers" created opportunities for change within the communities, including establishing system boundaries, understanding how systems components can function as causes of or solutions to a problem, and assessing and changing systems interactions. We conclude by arguing that systems theory adds value to existing implementation science frameworks and can be helpful in future research on the implementation of evidence-based practices such as HF which is a complex community intervention. Implications for community psychology are discussed.

Community Identity Increases Urban Residents' In‐group Emergency Helping Intention

AbstractThe current study examined how time pressure and community identity affected urban residents' in‐group emergency helping intention with a sample of 88 Chinese urban residents from a common community. Firstly, we instructed participants to fill out the Community Identity Scale. Following this, we set a hypothesized scenario, in which they met a fainted person in community when they left the community either in a hurry or not, to measure helping intention. It was found that time pressure had little impact on urban residents' in‐group helping intention, whereas community identity increased in‐group helping intention. Moreover, emotional identity but not functional identity positively predicted in‐group helping intention. These findings and their implications for community psychology were discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

IDENTIFICATION AMONG FIRST‐GENERATION CITIZEN STUDENTS AND FIRST‐GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS: AN EXPLORATION OF SCHOOL SENSE OF COMMUNITY

The current study explored the relationships within a higher education institution between school sense of community among first‐generation U.S. citizen students and first‐generation college students compared to students of non‐first generation studentship and citizenship (N = 3,025; M age = 27.21), and of varied racial backgrounds. Students at a large, urban, and faith‐based university completed a measure of belongingness on campus. In terms of generational status, results found a significant interaction such that students who were both first‐generation U.S. citizen students and first‐generation college students reported the highest school sense of community. However, the combined first‐generation U.S. citizen students and non‐first‐generation college student group reported the lowest scores. Despite these significant findings, sense of community scores were very similar with few differences between groups, which is further discussed in the discussion and limitation sections. Significant racial differences were not found. Implications for community psychology and higher education policy are discussed.

The system concept and systemic change: Implications for community psychology

The contributions before you are a rich resource for thinking more about system perspectives for teaching and research as well as efforts at induced change. The collective benefit of these contributions is a legacy for more dialogues about the generative power of these ideas to design systemic interventions for different conditions in varied settings. How can these presentations be explored to bring forth wisdom about initiating change and anchoring the processes of changes in organizations and communities? These papers are a collective watershed to respond to this question. A caveat is that community psychologists should not be lulled by the belief that our knowledge is sufficient to address large social processes outside our sphere of influence. The punch line for me in reading these contributions is that they serve as a challenge to place ourselves and our colleagues in positions of influence where systems thinking is a potential resource. Coupled with the creative efforts to develop models and examples of contextual analyses is the political challenge to place ourselves where we can influence governmental responses to organizations and communities. These creative examples challenge community psychology to continue as a deep thinking and activist profession. It is not enough to carry out creative ground breaking explorations. How can such efforts be visible and accessible and within arms reach and next door to activist influentals? This will take some doing. Each of the contributions points to plausible next steps. Many if not all of the contributions mention that understanding and initiating system changes takes time. How are future generations of community psychologists provided with the supportive environments to tune into the multi year processes of gaining trust and collaboratively creating and understanding systemic change? How will future graduate training give new community psychologists the know how to engage in these enterprises? How can graduate training sanction participation in multi year expeditions without major personal costs to the new and potentially vulnerable members of SCRA? One encouraging sign is the cumulative impact of the array of multiple methods employed to initiate and evaluate system changes. This is impressive. How will new members of SCRA have opportunities to realize and maybe try out multiple methods? Are our training programs equipped to teach and illustrate the benefits of comparative knowledge from varied places and different assumptions? Another positive sign is that throughout the papers there is a silent chorus that what goes on within a social system can not be separated from the multiple contexts affecting the participants and their system. This is a basic premise that is present in each of the contributions. Historical contributions as presented by Christens and colleagues affirm that we do have persons in times past who struck the same chords and were prescient to anticipate what we are struggling with today. We may not have the occasion every day to realize that Dewey, Foucault, Freire, Mills, Geertz, Habermas, Marcuse outside our field and Barker and Bronfenbrenner close to our field as well as pioneers in system dynamics modeling such as Forrester and Checkland are all ‘‘with us’’ in our ecological and systems expeditions and adventures. So historical analyses and inquiry are sources of support and validation as well as a source of caveats that can compel us not to be trapped by too strict a professional, elitist idea of what we are about. J. G. Kelly (&) Research Associate, University of California, Davis, CA 956186747, USA e-mail: jgkjazz@sbcglobal.net

Homogeneity in community‐based rape prevention programs: Empirical evidence of institutional isomorphism

AbstractThis study examined the practices of 24 community‐based rape prevention programs. Although these programs were geographically dispersed throughout one state, they were remarkably similar in their approach to rape prevention programming. DiMaggio and Powell's (1991) theory of institutional isomorphism was used to explain the underlying causes of the homogeneity among the programs. Qualitative data indicate that the mimetic, normative, and coercive contextual factors pushed the programs into homogeneity. Implications for community psychology and organizational theory will be discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Biopsychosocial profiles of pregnant women at high or low risk to encounter preterm birth

A battery of questionnaires consisting of biopsychosocial indices was administered prospectively to a sample of 734 pregnant women in their 12–27th weeks of gestation in prenatal clinics in the community. The purpose of the study was to identify predictors of preterm birth defined by either week of gestation, weight of infant at birth, or both. The findings suggest that the strongest medical predictor of preterm birth defined by week of gestation is risk factors in previous pregnancies, whereas the strongest and most consistent psychological predictor of preterm birth defined by either weight of infant at birth or both week of gestation and weight is the readiness of the pregnant woman to change her life-style during pregnancy to safeguard the well-being of the fetus. It is suggested that this scale is a reliable indirect measure of the desirability of pregnancy. Furthermore the profiles of highland low-risk women to encounter preterm birth, as suggested by cluster analysis and implications for community psychology, are discussed.

The social construction and subjective reality of activity settings: implications for community psychology.

A major focus of the article is the idea that activity settings are in part social constructions of the participants. The socially constructed "meaning" of an activity setting is a complex mix of ecological, cultural, interactional, and psychological features. These features may be observed and assessed, directly and indirectly, in terms of personnel, cultural values, tasks, scripts for conduct, and motives and purposes of actors. Empirical illustrations and extensions to community psychology are drawn from research with different populations: Native Hawaiian children and families, Spanish-speaking children and Mexican and Central American immigrant parents, Euro-American families with a developmentally delayed child, and Euro-American families who intentionally adopted nonconventional child-rearing values and practices.

Some dimensions of intercultural variation and their implications for community psychology

This essay provides a framework for studying cultural differences and similarities in social behavior and their implications for community psychology. Culture acts as a schedule of reinforcement, thereby influencing what is perceived (perceptual selectivity), how it is perceived (information-processing strategies), and how the information is organized (cognitive structures). There are four dimensions of behavior that appear to be universal: association versus dissociation, superordination versus subordination, intimacy versus formality, and overt versus covert behavior. Research findings on these dimensions are reviewed within the context of the needs of community psychology to develop multicultural paradigms for research and intervention.

Psychiatric reform in trieste, Italy: Implications for community psychology in the United States

Journal of Community PsychologyVolume 9, Issue 3 p. 276-279 Editorial Opinion Psychiatric reform in trieste, Italy: Implications for community psychology in the United States Jeffrey L. Crawford, Jeffrey L. Crawford Information Sciences Division Rockland Research Institute Orangeburg, New York 10962Search for more papers by this author Jeffrey L. Crawford, Jeffrey L. Crawford Information Sciences Division Rockland Research Institute Orangeburg, New York 10962Search for more papers by this author First published: July 1981 https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6629(198107)9:3<276::AID-JCOP2290090313>3.0.CO;2-TCitations: 2AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume9, Issue3July 1981Pages 276-279 RelatedInformation

Evaluators in local psychological and social service agencies: Implications for community psychology.

Evaluators in local psychological and social service agencies: Implications for community psychology.

Evaluators in local psychological and social service agencies: Implications for community psychology.

Evaluators in local psychological and social service agencies: Implications for community psychology.

Decreasing adolescents' fear of mental patients by means of demythologizing.

After participating in a brief, demythologizing seminar, 24 high school juniors reported significantly changed attitudes toward mental illness on a paper-and-pencil measure. These new attitudes reflected a rejection of the “mental illness” metaphor and, generally, less acceptance of the traditional medical model approach. Demythologizing also appeared to reduce significantly the students' ratings of fear of an hypothesized mental patient neighbor. A 5-wk. followup confirmed the stability of the changes in reported attitudes and fear ratings. Results are discussed within the context of their implications for community psychology. Replication is needed.